FraudFindr

Forensic accounting firms spend a tremendous amount of time manually reviewing, sorting, and analyzing transaction data while investigating financial exploitation cases. This tedious process results in high costs for the end client and in many cases limits a victim’s access to this valuable service.

Existing data analysis software is limited and caters to financial professionals, not social workers or local police who more frequently deal with financial exploitation cases. Our client came to us with a vision for a new cloud-based web software that would import, normalize, reconcile, and analyze financial transaction data — while simplifying the entire process and automatically detecting potential fraud.

Together with our client, we brought FraudFindr from idea to market in just 14 months, which included:

• Strategy
• Branding & Logo Design
• Product Design
• Product Development
• Copywriting
• Marketing Website Design + Development
• Beta Testing

We started this project with an in-depth strategy phase. Before we could write an accurate proposal, we first had to understand the scope of work. To define the scope of work, we had to gain an understanding of the current processes and pain points across multiple industries, consider our client’s vision for an effective solution, then conceive how that might translate to a cloud-based web application.

We also had to paint a more tangible picture of what bringing a new software product to market would require. How much will it cost? How long will it take? Who are the competitors? Who are the potential users? What is the ROI opportunity? How will we get customers? What happens after the product launches?

To answer these questions, we created a 50-page strategy deck, wrote a detailed project proposal, and created a product flowchart. That way, our client could make an informed decision about committing to this high-value, high-risk project.

To keep this massive set of tasks organized, optimize communication, and ensure the timely delivery of a complex long-term project, we used a collaborative Trello board. Each column or “list” represented the status of a task and cards were used to represent the tasks themselves. Then, we moved the cards from left to right across the lists as they were being worked on.

We also had periodic review meetings, but only made light use of Slack and email. Trello centralized our core communications which dramatically increased productivity and efficiency across our remote team as we brought this project to life amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before designing the interface, we decided to name and brand the product. We knew that naming the product and designing a logo would anchor all our conversations moving forward and quickly boost confidence and momentum in the early stages of the project. It would also allow us to secure a domain name and begin the lengthy process of applying for copyright and trademark ownership.

After a thorough naming exercise, the name FraudFindr was chosen by our client! From there, we designed the logo and created a 21-page brand presentation. We’re proud to say the logo was approved without any revisions!

With a sold product name and brand in place, we began designing the core web application. While there are only a dozen “core screens”, the entire system consists of 55+ screens and over 20 modals (popup windows).

Our goal was to make the workflows feel intuitive while making the process feel approachable. We needed FraudFindr to make sense for forensic accountants, police officers, APS workers, and individuals alike — regardless of their experience investigating financial crimes.

That’s why we broke the application down into 7 key areas based on our clients experience and expertise:

1. Login & Sign Up
2. Team Members & User Roles
3. Create & Edit Case Details
4. Add Bank Accounts & Transactions
5. Normalize & Reconcile Transactions
6. Run Diagnostics & Attribute Transactions
7. Create a Court-Ready Report

This made it much easier to design navigation patterns that gave the user direction without restricting their workflow. For example, a step-by-step wizard might be helpful for APS workers and law enforcement officers, but it would be cumbersome for forensic accounting experts.

In contrast, an more complex interface with fewer steps may optimize the workflow for forensic accounting experts, but would leave non-expert users feeling confused in frustrated. We needed to find a careful balance between the two user groups.

Entering case details such as victim and suspect information is a critical part of investigating financial crimes. However, there’s a tremendous amount of information that needs to be entered for each case. To simplify the process for the user, we used tabbed navigation combined with collapsable sections.

From there, we continued designing the core screens, optimizing the experience for efficiency and clarity. While the user can navigate many layers deep into the hierarchy and explore some complex data sets, the navigation remained simple and persistent throughout the application.

For this project, we worked with our world-class web development company, Symbiant. Operating from the west coast of the U.S., the Symbiant team members are long-time partners of ours. Working as an extension of our distributed remote team, they helped us bring this incredible web application to life.

While they focused on developing the core product, we shifted our focus to the marketing website. That way, by the time development was nearing completion, we’d have a fully functional marketing website, built in the WordPress CMS ready to launch and begin selling to prospective customers.

While the new cloud-based web software was being developed, our lead designer, Matt, got to work on designing a custom marketing website to help sell FraudFindr to consumers. The marketing website is a potential customer’s first impression of (and introduction to) the digital product. Its goal is to effectively communicate to accountants and accounting firms why FraudFindr is the right fit for their business and generate as many leads as possible.

For this website, we decided that the primary call-to-action should be “Start Your Free Trial”. By encouraging users to start a free trial, we could maximize conversions while educating potential buyers on the benefits of the software. We decided to include the following pages:

• Home
• Features
• How It Works
• Pricing
• About
• FAQs
• Start Your Free Trial
• Contact Sales (Form)
• Get Help & Support (Form)
• Report a Problem (Form)
• Give Product Feedback (Form)

While the marketing website design is custom and doesn’t leverage any pre-made themes or templates, we needed to ensure the design was flexible, scalable, and easy to manage as content changed over time. That’s why we designed a variety of modules that can “stack” together like building blocks to create beautiful and unique pages without sacrificing the integrity of the designs.

As we began to optimize the website for mobile users, we realized just how cumbersome traditional mobile navigation can be. The “hamburger menu” or tiny three-lined icon located in the top right of the screen, is out of thumbs-reach for most people. That discourages navigation and results in a frustrating experience for the user.

Instead, we challenged the status quo and designed a navigation menu that sticks to the bottom of the screen, exactly where the user’s thumb naturally touches the screen, regardless of their dominant hand. By moving the navigation to the bottom of the screen, we were able to provide a scalable and intuitive navigation system that dramatically improves usability.

As with all our custom marketing websites, we built a custom theme for FraudFindr that made all the text and image content incredible easy to edit. The custom post types and fields gave our client enough control to make changes quickly and easily, but without ever having to worry about compromising the integrity of the design.

The FraudFindr project is an incredible testament to what can be accomplished when a trusting client hires an expert design and development company to bring their greatest idea to life. We partnered with our client and took their idea from conception to launch in just over a year.

This was a fixed-price project, so our client never had to worry about the cost increasing even if the timeline changed — a respectable concern on such a long-term, complex, and high-risk project. With a world-class brand, marketing website, and valuable product, our client is ready to revolutionize the forensic accounting industry with FraudFindr.

We’re extremely grateful to have been entrusted with such a large and complex project and look forward to working with FraudFindr team as the product continues to evolve!